Speaker Straus deserves our congratulations on his re-election and thanks for his service Texas. The big issues facing Texas will be solved only by the bold ideas championed by commonsense Texans in the November election. It falls to Mr. Straus to get it done.
While Mr. Straus was not the first choice of many conservative voters, those same Texans demonstrated by being involved in this historic discussion about the speakership that they are interested in, and deeply committed to, the policy outcomes of this legislative session.
In running for re-election, Mr. Straus positioned himself well to the right of where his leadership team was last session. As an honorable man, we expect Speaker Straus will now lead from the right, as well. The vote he received from the House today means lawmakers, especially conservative lawmakers, are staking their legislative success, individually and collectively, on the policy outcomes Mr. Straus’s leadership will provide.
Conservatives expect Mr. Straus to now work to ensure that taxpayer protections get fair and open hearings. We’re counting on him to deliver meaningful tax relief for property owners and small businesses, and a budget balanced through spending restraint and not new revenues. On issue after issue, conservative voters are counting on this Republican super-majority to produce tangible votes consistent with the principles they were elected on in November.
For the first time in a generation, Texans were allowed to weigh in with their opinion on the speakership.
Representative democracy is all about electing someone to do a job, providing them with input, trusting they do it right, and then holding them accountable in the following election. Texans are eager to help shape the policy results that come from this legislative session, and see a stronger Lone Star State as a result.
